Recently I got back into pastel portrait painting. Here are a couple of the last ones. I really love the challenge of capturing the expressions and hopefully also the inner nature of the sitter, if lucky.

Pastel is a great medium, as it enables me to use both drawing and painting approaches. I love being able to draw/paint from life, which gives me the opportunity to talk to the person I portray. though these particular ones more recently have been done from photographs.

I really ought to be photographing the process as it is quite interesting – how the layer upon layer of drawing and painting information add up.

Should you want to be my real life model or a have your portrait painted from a photograph, do get in touch on irena.ellis@gmail.com. Prices are friendly, starting @50 GBP for the smaller formats.

I look forward to painting you.